Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Janes Davies has set herself a challenge to produce 400 4" x 4" pieces of art. She has generously shared a video of her method, This seemed like another use for gelli prints as a base. So here is my first attempt.

on the Big Road Trip and my this brought back some memories. We visited New York for two days about 20 years ago. We arrived in the evening and I will never forget the first glimpse of that famous skyline, lit up in the dusk. Our hotel was just off Times Square and we(I) couldn't wait to go and look. I can remember pinching myself as we walked round the corner.

We packed a lot into the two days including a trip up the Twin Towers. We saw the statue of Liberty from afar but this is as close as I came.

My goodness I was so young. Just after this was taken the heavens opened, just like it rains in the
movies. Heavy. Thankfully not for long.
On our second night our friend took us to see his New York, Little Italy, good fun and good food.

I did this collage sometime ago but I have given it a digital frame.It is not New York specific but I thought it fitted here.

I have thanks Marit for a stirring the memories, I have been wanting to go back ever since and haven't quite given up hope just yet. Yes girls, that would be some trip.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Marit who lives in the Netherlands has come up with a virtual road trip round the USA.

The first stop Here is New York where the guide is Seth Apter(I wish). He gives his own list of things which you can visit virtually but if you are planning a real trip you'll know where to go
If you find inspiration on the way you can e-mail it to Marit.
Now how to get that song out of my head?

Sunday, February 24, 2013

you thought I had forgotten how to thread a needle. I spent yesterday in a workshop with Pam Buck at Sevenoaks EG. As I have remarked before there is something really pleasant about sitting sewing in a room with a group of like minded women. Unfortunately Pam does not have a web site and I stupidly forgot my camera but she has some lovely embroideries based on seed packets and some tiny landscapes. She had generously prepared pieces of calico with painted bondaweb and she gave us patterns for the "seed packets" or said we could do a landscape it we wished. When I removed the backing paper from the webbing I saw trees, so mine became the start of a bluebell wood.

As you can see it is a work in progress and has been done many times before but I had a lovely day of learning and laughter. Thanks everyone but especially to Pam for unravelling the mysteries of the colonial knot for a lefty. Right handed tutorial from Mary Corbet here.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Lots of choices my first thought was music but then I thought of nature, so many harmonies there to I auditioned a few of my photographs but kept coming back to this one of the lavender farm in the Darenth Valley. I pass this on my way to the Embroiderers Guild and I love the way it changes with the seasons. The background is a gelli print of course, i liked it just the way it was so didn't add any background stamps.

Now up to speed with the Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary challenge. Incidentally I realised that I wasn't really fulfilling the dictionary part of the challenge so I am making a tag to go with each of the letters.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

I seem to be being bombarded by ideas at the moment, not complaining you understand. Rather that than sitting scatching my head. Having had sparks fly at Textiles in Focus on Sunday this moning I found this on Neil Gaiman's journal

Intrigued I headed here and then here for the stories. I have only read two but WOW. What an amazing ideaand what an imagination he has.
Reading the January story I suddenly had an mage in my head, I wish I was properly able to interpret what I saw in my mind's eye.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Sunday we enjoyed at sunny drive to Cottenham near Cambridge for the Textiles in Focus exhibition. We have never been before but it is definitely on the calendar for next year. We were not allowed to take photographs but there are a few on Lynda Monk's site as she was one of the exhibitor/tutor/demonstrators. It was lovely to catch up with Lynda and also to meet Julie of Mixed Media. There was some exciting work on show and some interesting traders. I had a full loyalty card for Art Van Go and I managed to spend it four times over.

Friday, February 15, 2013

At the beginning of the year I was very taken by the alphabet challenge on The Craft Barn. A letter once every two weeks, and the thing that made it different the letters would be announced randomly, therefore the starting letter was V. Well as everyone knows you suddenly arrive in the middle of February wondering where the beginning of the year went and then there was the Gelli plate....which I bought at the Craft Barn............that produced all these papers....so here I am using the papers and trying to get on track.
This is V for Vintage

and this is E for Eyes

I still have to do C to catch up fully. The intention (I'm good at those) will be a large book, the papers are A4 size.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

so where did they go since I started this blog. I was going to put this at the end but decided that you might not get that far so....I would like to thank all the people who I have "met" over these years. I am not going to mention names as I would be bound to miss someone but if you follow you will know the people who have become an important part of my life.I thank all the generous people out there who share their knowledge, often freely. Thank you for reading and following my butterfly mind.

I thought it would be a good time to change the layout. I tried all the dynamic ones and decided that was too big a jump for one of my advanced years so in the end I settled for this. Still not sure. Anyway the story continues...

There are a lot of really cool stencils out there but I don't seem to have many of them and then I had a moment. Some years ago cutting up plastic bags to incorporate into bits of stitchery was all the rage and so you take one of these,

one of those very thin bags for vegetables, and then cut it up into little strips (easier if you fold it)

The lay the strips out, in layer,s on a piece of greaseproof paper, cover
with another and iron . You will see the plastic shrink and it sticks
together where it crosses

I then became excited and forgot to show the plastic on the painted gelli, but this is it after I pulled the print.

and this is the print

another

and this is where I cleaned the brayer

The plastic is very fragile and can only really be used once or twice but you are left with a great collage element.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

DH's question was answered in part. Since I saw this I have been wanting to send a postcard to help save this delightful little Post Office. Then this morning Jane posted this tutorial on making postcards and the light bulb glimmered. This is the card I will be sending to her.

Pity we can't do something to save the closure of Post Offices in this country.

I made these a couple more cards from the same print.

I liked the way this face just appeared, thought he looked a bit like a roman god.

Saturday, February 09, 2013

This Gelli thing really has me hooked at he moment. So this morning was no different. At first I added more layers to some of the papers I made on Thursday.

Then I played with stencils

The last two above have metallic paint on them wich doesn't scan well.

Next I made a stamp, using the photograph of the house in Kotor which, at the moment, is my banner.

Don't you just love ghost prints.

and finally I had to try fabric, both these are with slightly damp calico

I did try a moon on dry calico, it was OK but rather boring. Of course the question now, already asked by DH, is what am I going to do with all these papers? No clear answers yet.
For the moment I will just keep creating.
If you want to see techniques and what others are doing look here at Carolyn Dube's "A Colourful Journey"
I forgot to post these little dears, made by me and The Girls last week...

Monday, February 04, 2013

Than I moved on to what my friend would call Book 2.
I have a picture of my dear mama being very silly on a beach. I played in PaintShop Pro and produced this.

Than I made a mask which, of course, produced a stencil.

and this is the result of "ghost"prints and cleaning .

I can't explain how liberated I feel, because you don't know exactly what you are going to see when you pull off the paper there is an excitement. If you don't hear from me for a while you will find me under a pile of Gelli monoprints